Rb & raspi why so difficult to get working

[thechipman0]

Anyone tell me how I contact RB support regarding this dam antenna??
Thanks
Steve

[Runway 31]

[email protected] or [email protected] both go to the same place

Alan

[thechipman0]

cheers alan
steve

[abcd567]

.....when I use a homemade spider and pick up most of the aircraft in the shown coverage area.....

Can you please post photo of your home made Spider? Photo will be OK even if it is not mounted on mast but is disconnected and is in your room. I am just curious to see it's built.

[Hawkeye]

"Thanks Steve, how did you get up there?"

Spider man? :-)

[abcd567]

"Thanks Steve, how did you get up there?"

Spider man? :-)

LOL
Well if some one climbs to that odd place to install a Spider antenna, it is appropriate to call him "Spider Man".

[anchorage 53]

I love it

[thechipman0]

LOL. I was in the building trade for 50 + years and spent a lot of time on roofs. I'm a bit old for it now but the skill does not go just the balance and strength. A long ladder a bit of sweat and fear and it was up. Now I may have to take it down again as I believe that the antenna is faulty. Watch this space. Ps I have a request of pic for the spider, I have put it in the bin but if I can dig it out I will take picture and post it.

Steve

[thechipman0]

Just dug my spider out of the bin, I'm glad it was still there as I'm going to have to use it while RB sort a replacement.
This little spider took me about 20 mins to make, it gave me a coverage of 236nm. When checking with live radar it also gave me 98% aircraft in the coverage area, not bad. When the new antenna arrived I put it up immediately and thought itsgot to be better. Noooooo the area cover was the same but I could only pick up maybe half a dozen aircraft. So spider beat  official RB antenna hands down. Check for yourselves on my station now and you will see what I  mean. When I re erect the spider sometime during the week weather permitting I will let you know and you can compare. My station is EXTRPI020882. Anyway here is the requested spider pic.

Steve

[abcd567]

Thanks for the photo of Spider.
The 1/4 wavelength antenna with ground plane (Spider and Cantenna) have advantage that they are far less sensitive to dimensional errors and straightness of wires than the Collinear antennas. This makes them work good even when made by an inexperienced hobbyist. Collinear antennas (Coaxial collinear and wire collinear with coils & stubs) are very intolerant to dimensional errors and that makes it very hard to get them right.

A 1/4 wavelength ground plane antenna (Spider or Cantenna) is a very good and easy to make bench-mark antenna for use as reference to judge the performance of other antennas.

The Spider can be built either over a SO-239 connector as a base, or without any connector at all (like the Spider you have built). Both builds perform equally good. The one built on SO-239 connector is sturdier, while the connector-less type is good when you don't have the connector readily available.

[thechipman0]

Well guys I have now taken down the radarbox official antenna and replaced with the hurriedly made spider that I fished out of the bin. The result speaks for itself as you can see, yes I have lots of aircraft showing a little better than the half dozen using the other areal.

Steve

[Runway 31]

Yes a lot better so something definately not right with the Airnav one, is a replacement on its way to you?

Alan

[thechipman0]

I have just emailed them for a replacement or refund but if they want me to send it back they need to send a prepaid return label or get the delivery driver to collect when he delivers the replacement.
Hopefully there won't be a problem.
Steve

[Runway 31]

I thought you had contacted them when the issue showed itself originally, hopefully there are no issues

Alan

[thechipman0]

I did contact them they emailed me back to ask if I had bought it from them. I told them yes via amazon but they were the sellers, not heard anything back.